Runaways
by WhimsicalityUnited
Summary: Life after Greendale doesn't exactly go according to plan. Jeff/Annie futurefic.
1. Will You Run Away With Me?

The markets are on every Saturday night.

The air is rich with exciting, mouth-watering aromas that intermingle with intermittent bursts of frenzied music from the town square. It lasts late into the night, overrunning streets like the tentacles of a languid octopus extending deep into the sleepiest hollows of outer-suburbia. People weave in and out of other people; finding lost treasures in second hand stalls, trying street food from obscure countries so slathered in sauce that it smears all over their faces, and some just letting go and losing themselves in a timeless haze away from the weary reality of daily existence.

One man, a rose between his teeth, gripping a bottle of wine in his left hand and his jacket slung over his right shoulder, makes his way through the stalls and the people, past the enormous reach of the Saturday Markets until he arrives on the border of an enormous forest. He pauses for reasons unknown to him, _to hell with it_, and then plunges his way deep into the dark, his way ahead lit by the dimmest starlight.

He smiles slightly when he sees her silhouette on the cliff.

She's resting on her elbows with her legs dangling over the edge and her fingers spread over the warm summer grass. Again he pauses in line with the edge of the forest, _you're ridiculous Jeff Winger; you do this every week_. He shakes his head slightly trying to clear his mind before walking over and cautiously sitting beside her, ensuring that his chances of plummeting to a gruesome death are at an absolute minimum before placing the bottle in the wine-hole he dug years before and slinging his jacket over her shoulders when she sits up and looks towards him.

He takes the thornless rose from between his teeth and places it behind her ear.

"Milady"

"Jeff". He winces internally.

It's _Jeff_ every time.

Yet it still hurts.

He plasters the smallest of smirks on his face.

She's looking at him hesitantly; her eyes are still so wide and so devastatingly blue after so many years that for a second he forgets everything that happened between them; all of the drama, the history, the late nights at the bar refusing to believe that alcohol was not the solution he was searching for, disappear, and for a second he remembers with absolute clarity, that he loved her, he still does, that he wants to hold her close and never let her go, how good she made him feel, the unbridled euphoria of simply waking up with her warmth next to him, the quiet contentment when he arrived home from the firm to their apartment, THEIR apartment, THEIR APARTMENT that had touches of Annie everywhere, the subtle green cloth over the lamp shade, the hideously lovable coffee table, and the huge swirling purple vase that he gave her on their second anniversary…but then the second passes.

He remembers that it's Annie _Edison _again, not Annie _Winger._

Not anymore at least.

He barks a grating laugh over the cliff before grabbing, uncorking and drinking from the bottle with one fluid motion. She jerks her head towards him, the pop is deafening in the silence of the night but it's the laugh that catches Annie off guard. It was laced with so much bitterness. He never used to laugh like that; like his life was one huge joke that he had paid dearly to hear. In that one moment Annie realizes that she's broken him far more than his father ever did and she dies just a little faster on the inside.

Jeff notices her looking at him, her expression is completely open and unguarded, she looks at him with so much guilt written on her face, as if she'd just molotoved Pinocchio and run him through a wood chipper, and Jeff can't help the short burst of laughter from escaping.

"Jeff!" She hesitates for a moment before smacking him playfully on the shoulder; uncertain as to how he'll respond.

He's looking at her now, his brow furrowing deeply. Slowly his expression clears and he smirks at her gently.

"Hey don't blame me; it's that face of yours, in fact, I defy you to look in the mirror with that face and not laugh."

"What's wrong with my face?"

She pouts ever so slightly.

He cracks up again and both can feel the inherent sense of ease between them from long ago returning.

"It's just…"

She looks up at him expectantly.

"It's just so adoooorable".

She lets out a high pitched "Hmmph", her lips tightening into a taut line.

Jeff takes one look at her angry face and descends into fits uncontrollable laughter.

"Not exactly disproving the theory there Annie", he says breathlessly when he's recovered sufficiently.

"I'll have you know that I have a distinguished face, verified by seven_ separate_ accounts".

"Of course you do." Jeff muttered.

She chooses to ignore him.

She closes her eyes contentedly, pointing to her face with her index finger and drawing a circle:

"This is the face of Annie Stephenson, a face that can get things." She says with a tone of mock finality.

She hears a sharp intake of breath from next to her and can almost feel the warmth surrounding her draining away.

"Stephenson…"

She opens her eyes in horror; her face blanches in the knowledge that she's mentioned the one thing that she's kept a secret from him.

She can see the cogs turning in his mind, piecing everything together, the threads of her life slowly unravelling.

She can see the light bulb moment in his mind; his shoulders sag and he turns away from her.

"You married Rich."

He sounds impossibly tired; his voice is barely louder than whisper. He leans back and rests on his elbows; his head rolls back and rests lightly on the grass.

He looks utterly defeated.

After an eternity, he shakes his head slightly and slowly stands up. Annie joins him quickly and they both stare over the edge at the murky darkness of the woods below. He shifts his position slightly and turns his head to face her.

She's afraid to look at him.

She's afraid that he'll see the tears in her eyes.

She's afraid that he'll see the tears in her eyes and walk away.

And never look back.

But eventually she gathers the last vestiges of her courage to turn and face him.

_He deserves at least this. _

_He deserves so much more than this._

She's not prepared for the tears streaming down his face.

She's not prepared for the soft smile on his face.

His Annie smile.

"Milady".

There is such a sense of absolute finality in his tone that it sends a shock of pain coursing through her chest, like he's reading the final lines of a script. She realises that he's letting go.

But he can't.

She grabs his shirt and drags him down crashing her lips onto his, kissing him desperately, kissing him passionately, kissing him with everything she has until she pulls away breathless.

It's not until after that she realises that he didn't kiss her back.

In her shock she barely notices Jeff lean down and fill in the wine hole.

She understands though.

He pauses when he's in line with the border of the forest and can't resist the urge to look back, look back at Annie; Annie whom he had loved with everything he had, but in the end it still wasn't enough, Annie whom he had spent the past year trying to forgive only to be steam-rolled over with the fact that she had found someone else.

In the end he can't even blame her.

He chuckles lightly to himself.

_Rich wasn't a serial killer after all, huh, I guess he'd make a pretty perfect husband._

He turns back to the forest and begins his long walk back home.

Maybe she can finally move on now.

He doesn't hear her until she's right behind him.

She wraps her arms around him tightly, and presses her face to the back of his shirt, revelling in his warmth.

"I can't lose you Jeff, not again." She murmurs into his shirt.

They stand like that for ages at the heart of the forest, only accompanied by the slightest rustling of the leaves overhead.

Jeff closes his eyes. "You're the one who walked away."

He can't bring himself to look at her.

"You slept with him, you left, and you married him."

She circles around until she's directly in front of him, still holding on tight as she nestles her chin in the small dip on his chest and slowly trails her gaze up until their eyes meet.

"Do you love him?"

She breaks eye contact, chewing demurely on her bottom lip.

"Annie…"

"Yes okay, I love him! You don't just marry a guy without loving him!"

Jeff smiles humourlessly, "You married me".

Her heart breaks completely. _OF COURSE I LOVE YOU!_ She wants to scream it at the top of her lungs, as loud as she can for the whole world to hear, but he's looking at her so gently and broken that she can't speak. She's sobbing painfully into his shirt and suddenly it's too much for him. He disengages himself from her grip and begins to walk away as fast as he can. Annie stands there for a moment stunned to her very core, but then she runs after him, following him into the dark, because she knows that if she were to let him leave tonight, she won't ever see him again, and she will always regret it.

She barely makes it fifty metres before a figure appears behind her and tackles her to the ground. She releases a frantic yelp as her and her assailant's bodies merge to become an amorphous mass of flailing limbs. Her heart is thumping in her chest, her breaths become short and erratic. She ends up facing her assailant on the ground ready to spray with the mace she always keeps in her back pocket.

_Oh. _

_It's only Jeff._

_Wait what?_

He gives her his biggest shit-eating grin as he slides off her and stands up, brushing off dead leaves and glaring disapprovingly at the new streaks of dirt on his shirt. Annie leaps to her feet still charged on adrenaline and glowers at him slapping his chest hard to emphasise each word.

"WHAT" _Slap_ "ARE" _Slap_ "YOU" _Slap_ "DOING" _Slap_ "YOU" _Slap_ "COULD'VE" _Slap_ "HURT" _Slap_ "STOP" _Slap_ "SMIRKING" _Slap_ "YOU" _Slap_ "GIANT" _Slap_ "CYNICAL" _Slap_ "JERK".

Jeff's eyes are alight with mischief.

"I present to you Annie Stephenson, always had a way with words, she did."

He twinges slightly at Stephenson, but even it can't wipe off the smirk from his face.

"…shut it, Winger."

A small smile breaks through her pout when she realises that he's still smirking at her. His smirk softens at her smile until they're both grinning at each other like idiots.

His grin fades as he looks at her resignedly; his eyes are more open and vulnerable than she's ever seen them.

"Why did you come after me, Annie? You already have Dr Richie Rich. Why couldn't you just let me go?"

"Because I love you! More than anything in the world, more than I ever thought I could love anything, it physically aches on the weeks that you don't come but its more than worth it, because just imagining you smile at me gets me through the day, you drive me completely insane Jeff, but the insanity is worth it, completely and utterly worth it."

"You love me?" His voice is faint and riddled with uncertainty as if considering the validity of the fantastical.

"Yes, you idiot, how can you possibly doubt that now, how can you possibly doubt that the fact that I love you and I always have?"

His jaw line hardens and his eyes darken with intensity until they're almost black.

"You're joking? You slept with Rich when we were married, when I was hospitalised, and you left a week after I came home, and not two years later you've married Rich.

I will doubt your love every day until the day I die, Annie and there is nothing you can do to make me doubt you any less." His voice crescendos and breaks under the strain.

"I was scared Jeff, scared out of my mind, scared that I would lose you, scared because whether you lived or died was completely out of my hands and THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO ABOUT IT!

Rich was a mistake, he had just lost his wife; we shared our pain with each other and it felt better. I left because I was a coward Jeff, because I thought that nothing would ever fix it, so I didn't try, the first time I took the easy way out and I lost everything, I thought that there was no way that you would want to be with me ever again."

"THEN WHY DID YOU MARRY HIM," each word is stressed with and shouted through clenched teeth, "WAS IT BECAUSE YOU WERE SCARED THEN TOO, HUH? IS THE REASON YOU LOVE HIM SO MUCH BECAUSE YOU'RE SCARED?"

After Jeff calms down he huffs out a laugh.

"At least you were right about something."

Annie reels internally at the callousness of his words.

"YES I MARRIED HIM BECAUSE I WAS SCARED; I WAS SCARED THAT I HAD FOUND THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND I HAD WALKED AWAY FROM HIM, THAT I WOULD SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE ALONE LONGING FOR A TIME THAT HAD PASSED!"

"I never left Greendale, you knew where to find me, you've always known."

"I guess I settled down and grew content with my new life, content to grow old surrounded by dreary mediocrity than to risk it all with you, and I eventually deluded myself into actually believing I was in love with Rich."

Jeff lets out a long drawn out sigh.

"So what now Annie, what do you want from me?"

"I want you."

He smiles at her sardonically.

"Come on now be realistic, we've both already established that's not going to happen."

She glances at him thoughtfully, a playful smirk dancing around the corners of her lips.

"And why is that?"

"Uh…You're married to my mortal enemy."

"I can get a divorce, and then I'll TP his house with you."

"We're a bit old for TPing a house aren't we?"

"Not unless time is linear."

"I'll make your ass linear."

They both chuckle briefly as Jeff is drawn into Annie's game.

"I don't think I can ever forgive you."

"Eh… I can live with that."

"Really? Why is that?"

"Because I love you, duh." She makes the "he's crazy" gesture with her right hand.

He rolls his eyes.

"I don't think I can trust you at all."

"Well then I guess I'll just have to prove myself to you."

"How?"

"We'll figure it out."

Jeff's beyond intrigued.

"I'm not sure I love you anymore."

"Oh hush you, of course you do, next question."

He's about to protest but he stops suddenly, _Huh I guess she's right, _and huffs out a laugh instead.

"I will question whether you actually love me every single day until the day I die."

"If you take me back I will marry you every single day until the day you die to prove how much I love you."

Jeff cocks his head slightly.

"And just why exactly do you think I'll be the first to die?"

"Because you said… but what I meant was… shut up… you're not getting the full picture."

She flushes slightly and he laughs.

"Okay so what's the whole picture?"

"The whole picture is that I love you Jeff Winger I can't live without you and the years that we weren't together where the worst of my life because I knew that it was all my fault, I know I've made so many huge mistakes but after 6 years I still love you as much as when we first started and if you let me I'll spend the rest of my life with you trying to correct my…"

Her speech is cut short by his lips enveloping hers; the kiss is much softer this time, each relearning the soft contours of the inside of each other's mouths. Jeff slowly pulls her flush with his body so that she's standing on the tips of her toes as he winds a lazy hand through her hair and deepens the kiss. After two years of absence have been accounted for they both pull back breathing heavily.

"Run away with me Annie."

She lets out a tentative "what?" looking at him adorably confused.

"Run away with me, we'll go anywhere, everywhere far away from this suburban nightmare, until either Rich or reality catches up with us."

She lets out a giggle. "Why?" She asks him curiously.

"Because I don't know if I can trust you, or if there is a blind spot in your love called Rich, because you broke me the last time you walked away from our relationship and I don't know if I can go through it again, this way we'll go on whacky adventures and if you want out, there's a very comfortable Rich shaped safety net to break your fall and I won't be too devastated. But if at the end of everything we're still together? Then we'll know it was meant to be, you can divorce Dr Do-no-wrong and we can move on from there.

What do you say?"

"Yes."

"You can think about it if you want."

"Nope."

You sure?"

"Yup."

"Reaaally Sure?"

"Jeeeeefff".

"Okay pack your bags and get everything ready, we'll meet back here at dawn."

"It's a date."

"Milady"

Her smile is absolutely radiant.

"Milord"

And for the first time in two years Jeff's smile reaches his eyes.


	2. Unless Time Is Linear

Disclaimer: Community, and all that it entails, is not mine to own, but I love it as much as if it were one of my own.

_Enjoy!_

* * *

"The Grand Canyon."

Annie chews out each word.

"Jeff and I are going to the Grand Canyon."

She scrunches up her face as if the words have an unusual taste.

She tries different inflections.

"Jeff and I are going to the _Grand Canyon_."

_Nope._

"Jeff and I are _going_ to the Grand Canyon."

_No._

"**Jeff and I are **_going_ to _the_ **Grand** Canyon."

She pouts slightly, _Still nope, _before turning hesitantly to face Jeff.

"Jeeefff, why are we going to the Grand Canyon?"

He pretends not to hear her over the purr of the engine and _the not-quite-as-deafening-as-he-would-like-sound_ of the warm air blasting over the windscreen.

She smacks him on his shoulder with just a tad more force than was necessary to get his attention.

He ignores her.

"Hmmph."

_She has got to have the most adorable affronted noise ever._

He turns his head slowly to face her before letting out a long, extraordinarily exasperated sigh and focusing on the road again.

"Yes Milady?"

"Explain yourself, mister."

"Well you see...we're going to burn it down."

There's a long pause before Annie looks at him; her eyes rimmed with concern.

She lets out a short gasp.

Jeff has earphones in both ears, aviators over his eyes and a huge smirk plastered on his face.

"Jeeeeeffffreeeyyy Wiiiiiiiingeeeeerrr!"

* * *

_October 2019_

"Honey, I'm hooome!"

Jeff winces slightly. _Hey I'm allowed to be cheesy alright? It's not like I just had major surgery or survived a car crash or anything, geez! Wait where's Annie?_

Instead he's confronted by his former study group who are standing solemnly in a vague semicircle around his couches, their faces anguished and their eyes darting from one to another.

"Hey guys, where's Annie? What's going on?"

"Jeff I think it's best if you were sitting before we told you."

He looks inquisitively at Britta, cocking his head slightly, before sitting down. The group files out from behind the couches forming another semicircle in front of him.

"Okaaaaay, where's Annie?"

A chill runs down his spine when he can't meet the eyes of any of the study group._ She's not…no she can't be…it's impossible…I would know if she were…_

"She's gone Jeff."

…_dead._

"WHAT?"

Britta starts to ramble, her words stumbling over themselves as she tries to get them out.

"She left two nights ago, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

The whole study group instantaneously becomes animated.

"That bitch, I should have never given her any of my pies."

"I'm sorry man, but if you're up for it we can egg her house tomorrow and then we can cook it and then birds will come and that will attract wild cats which will eat them and then she'll forever be known as cat lady, the lady with a thousand cats, yeahhh."

"You know that's also Jeff's house right?"

"…oh yeah...buzzkill."

"Don't worry my friend this was only your first marriage…you've got at least five more to go."

Jeff slumps back into the sofa, his head lolling back. He raises his right hand in the air, clamping his fingers softly down on his thumb, and slid it fluidly through the air as if he were closing a giant invisible zip.

Everyone immediately becomes quiet.

"Well at least she isn't dead."

To everyone's surprise the words aren't cynical or bitter or sarcastic or even hostile in any way.

He eyes them all in turn, his line of sight sweeping slowly across the room.

"Shirley, I know this must be hard for you, but it is okay for you to not hate her, I understand."

Her expression softens slightly from the absolute rage that had been etched onto her face.

"No, no Jeff I'm with you on this one a hundred percent, I just don't think I can ever forgive that…bitch."

Jeff bites back a laugh and looks at her softly, one side of his mouth is quirked up sardonically.

Shirley looks guilty as she bends her head forward and redirects her attention to her feet.

"Okay maybe I still like her a little."

"That goes for you too Pierce, she is your favourite."

"Was my favourite."

"You mean…?"

"Pshh…in your dreams gay boy, it's now Shirley."

Shirley looks horrified. Britta looks affronted.

"Pierce!"

He just shrugs and when he thinks no one's looking, he meets Jeff's gaze and winks just once.

_I've got your back... even if it is occasionally gay._

"Well I for one won't stand for this; no one walks out on their spouse no matter how much I disagree with the concept. How could she? She was the one who was so determined to keep us all together. How could she just walk away from us like that?"

"She outgrew us," Jeff states simply.

"You know she only left me right? I'm not stopping you guys from being with her."

"We know Jeff, but _we, we_ are a family and family sticks together. She walks away from one of us; she walks away from all of us."

"How are you so cool about all this? I've seen you break down for much less."

Jeff scoffs.

"Ah, when?"

"Ah, shorts?

Jeff winces.

"Ok, point made and instantly forgotten."

"Wasn't she the love of your life? Shouldn't you be punching walls, listening to Joy Division on a never-ending loop and drinking yourself to an early grave?"

The small remnants of humour vanish from Jeff's face before he closes his eyes and states in careful, measured words:

"I guess I just always knew that she would eventually come to her senses, realise she's married to a gross, jaded, self-centred man 12 years her senior, cut everything and run. Frankly I'm surprised that it took this long."

Everyone's faces fall before they are hit with the kicker:

"So yes, she was the love of my life, but I always knew I was deluding myself when I imagined that I was the love of hers'."

Troy breaks down and starts to weep.

Jeff plasters a deadpan mask on his face before ushering everyone towards the dining room.

"But that's enough drama for tonight, c'mon everyone grab a beer, let's celebrate!"

"We're celebrating Annie leaving you?"

"No, _Britta_, we are celebrating all the fun times we had; both as a study group and the ones between me and Annie, and there were a lot of them, some right here on this table."

"Oh, oh dear…"

"Awesome…"

"Jeff don't be gross…"

"Exactly where on this table?"

As the group descends into normality, _well as normal as the can get_, talking animatedly around the dining table, Jeff seeks out the one person who hasn't said anything all night.

"Rich?" he mouths, his eyes inquisitive.

Abed just nods.

Jeff sighs resignedly before joining in on the conversation.

_He'd better not be a serial killer._

* * *

_June 2017_

At Britta's insistence they don't get married in a church.

At Troy's insistence they don't get married during the day.

("Because, Annie, duh, it's a cliché.

…You've been around Abed too long.

You're about 8 years too late to that party Annie.")

At Pierce's insistence they don't get married at night.

...This proves difficult.

("Why Pierce, why are you trying to ensure that I don't get married and die alone surrounded by the cats I'm sure to buy? Do you hate me? Oh no you don't still think Jeff is gay do you? Explain yourself old man."

"Old? I'll show you old! Troy drop a beat."

"For the last time Pierce NO!"

"Okay, okay geez, well if you must know all of my marriages have been at night, in Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno…"

"This explains so much about you."

"Shut it, Winger…and after so many failed marriages… I just…I see you guys… you know I care about…I want yours to go differently."

…

"Okay")

At Abed's insistence their wedding was to be epic.

("Preferably with you two saying your vowels whilst leaping over alligator infested waters and then having passionate sex whilst hiding from a Blorgon invasion.")

At Shirley's insistence they have a strict dress code.

("Because I'll be damned if I'm going to a wedding NOT in a church AND without a proper sense of propriety.")

They do end up having a strict dress code…just not the one Shirley had envisaged.

The guys are dressed as steam-punk time travellers and the women are dressed as Goth fairies after the great Greendale Library flood of 2014 left many soaking wet clothes with hours left until the wedding.

("Say what you will about Greendale, its costume shops have a surprisingly large quantity of these."

"That's because no one ever buys these, Britta."

"Oh yeh…right.")

They get married at dusk on the side of a mountain range overlooking a giant inland lake. A gentle breeze periodically winds its way through the picturesque valley, lazily flicking at the warm grass, causing the surface of the water to shimmer with slivers of warm orange and languid red, and pushing puffs of cloud across the darkening sky.

Jeff and Annie are seated on the very edge of the lake, their hands entwined and their bare feet skimming the surface as they watch the stars come out.

"Have I told you how ridiculous you look?" Jeff mutters, still staring off into the distance.

He can't see her but he's sure his new wife is pouting.

"Yes, plenty of times."

"Just checking."

He slings an arm around her shoulder and pulls her closer.

"Well, what about you?" asks Annie who wriggles slightly as she adjusts to her new position.

"Hmm, what about me?"

"Do you know how ridiculous _you_ look?"

Jeff scoffs gently.

"Always was queen of the comebacks."

She slaps him on the chest.

"Hey I can't help the fact my costume consists of a suit, and whilst there are many things I am not completely amazing at…"

"Hmm, like pottery," Annie quips.

Jeff scowls slightly.

"Yes _Annie_, like pottery."

"Just checking."

"Hmmph, anyway, I can't help that I look good in a suit, no matter what the suit is, even if it is brown and lined with what I assume to be the inside of all of Greendale's clocks. You on the other hand look like a depressed butterfly that's made a lot of bad life choices."

Jeff pauses slightly.

"Beautiful though."

"Yeah?"

"Absolutely stunning."

They kiss passionately under a field of stars.

There isn't a Blorgon in sight.

"Maybe we should get back," Annie says hesitantly after they pull away.

"C'mon Annie it's your wedding, live a little, now if at no other time."

Jeff uncorks a bottle of wine and gulps down a mouthful before setting it down in a hole to his side. Annie looks at him curiously.

"What is that?"

"It's a wine hole, Annie; it's where I put my wine."

"I was referring to the wine itself, actually."

"Oh, I thought that was self-explanatory."

Annie doesn't say anything.

"It's _wine_, Annie."

And he gulps down another mouthful.

She looks affronted.

"Did you steal that?"

"Yes Annie, from _our_ reception."

"Still that doesn't make it right, what if someone else wanted to drink that wine and then the only recollection they'll have of this wedding is the wine that went missing, didn't think of that didya punk?"

Jeff looks bemused.

"Punk? Annie what is this really about?"

"Well it's just, we've been married less than an hour and you're already trying to get drunk."

She looks so put out that Jeff can't help but laugh.

"Hey!"

"No, it's not what you think Annie, it's just that it feels like I'm on the edge of something, figuratively and literally, and I'll be damned if I'm sober when I take the plunge."

"So you need to be drunk to be with me?"

"No…"

Jeff smirks.

"..but it does help. Besides who said I was being figurative."

And he pulls them both into the water.

* * *

"Did you ever remarry?

"Mhmm, twice actually, once to Britta."

"What?"

Her tone seems to scream _**SCANDALOUS**_ which makes Jeff laugh.

"How did Troy take it?"

"Better than most, surprisingly, after we got it annulled he even told me that he was glad that we had gotten it out of the way."

"Really, why?"

"I think it was something Abed told him, he kept rambling on about destiny and compatibility, it would have been quite funny if it wasn't so…strange."

"I would have thought that he would have taken it much worse, like, I dunno punched you in the face or something."

"What, like you did?"

"Yeah I guess but you know maybe a touch more macho?"

"Well it is Troy."

"Hey! I'm sure Troy can be as manly as he wants to be…whenever he chooses to do so."

"You realize you're talking about the guy who came to our wedding in a steam-punk suit and fairy wings because he thought they formed _a sumptuous duality of colours and textures_."

"Yeah Troy and Abed were really weird during their British art critiquing phase."

Suddenly, "Roxanne" by The Police starts blaring from Annie's phone.

"Oooh, you've been driving for four hours, it's time to switch."

"I dunno Annie, I feel fine and you know, _you_ look kinda tired and besides we're almost there."

"How much longer?"

"…about four hours."

"How is it that you're even more protective of your new car than your old Lexus?"

"Hey! Hey, this isn't any old car; this is my 1990 Porsche 964 Cabriolet."

"You mean Hank Moody's 1990 Porsche 964 Cabriolet?"

Jeff lets out a resigned sigh.

"Yeah okay but take care of her, Betsy and I have been through a lot these past few years."

"You named your car Betsy? And what things? You've only had it for a few months."

"Oh I never got around to telling you the other person I married."

Annie looks at Jeff suspiciously.

"Okay…who was it?"

"Annie Kim."

"WHAT?!"

"Are you going to drive or aren't you woman?"

* * *

A/N: Sorry if Jeff seems out of character here but lets just say that it's been a long seven years for him. Next chapter, they "burn down" the Grand Canyon, and more flashbacks!

_Thanks for reading!_


End file.
